Retired San Angelo Doctor Publishes Book on Caring for Cancer Patients in Rural Texas

SAN ANGELO, TX — Dr. Fazlur Rahman, retired oncologist and an adjunct professor in the Angelo State University Department of Biology, has published a new book titled "Our Connected Lives: Caring for Cancer Patients in Rural Texas" through Texas Tech University Press.

Based on Rahman's experiences through 35 years as an oncologist in San Angelo, the book is filled with compassionate tales that are a blend of storytelling, cancer science, and Rahman's personal reflections and struggles on making medical decisions that treat a patient as a whole person, not just as a person with a disease.

With the grace of a born storyteller, Rahman narrates the instructive stories of five cancer patients: surviving against all odds; walking a long path with cancer and still making a daily life; bearing the crushing burdens of the exorbitant costs of cancer drugs; navigating the vagaries of old age and coping with malignancy; and patients' desire for dignity.

"Our Connected Lives" is Rahman's second book, following "The Temple Road: A Doctor's Journey" in 2016. He has also contributed editorial pieces and other articles on medical, ethical, social and scientific issues to numerous prestigious publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Harvard Review, The Lancet, Newsweek and Short Story International. More details are available on his website at fazlurrahmanmd.com.

"Our Connected Lives" is now available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Texas Tech University Press, as well as other online booksellers and independent bookstores. Rahman will also conduct a book signing on Thursday, Nov. 14, from 5-7 p.m. at Old Town Books, 506 S. Chadbourne St. downtown, and copies of his book will be available.

In addition to his faculty role teaching medical humanities and ethics at ASU, Rahman helped originate ASU's Distinguished Lectureship in Science Honoring Dr. Roy E. Moon when he was a member of West Texas Medical Associates (WTMA), and he remains on the speaker selection committee. He is also a senior trustee of Austin College and a member of the Advisory Council for the Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

A native of what is now Bangladesh, Rahman graduated from Daulatpur College and earned his medical degree at Dhaka Medical College. He completed his internship at St. John's Hospital in New York, his junior residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Center-Queens General Hospital in New York, and his senior residency and fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Oncology, American Board of Hematology and American Board of Internal Medicine.